Itasca

Hiking Club Trail #38

HIKE DETAILS
Date: September 21, 2021
Location: Park Rapids, MN
Length: 3.5 Miles
Difficulty: Moderate
Cumulative Hiking Club Miles: 112.2 of 197

Happy 40th Birthday to me. Outside of the North Shore Itasca is my favorite - the Park is huge and has something for everyone. Miles of hiking, many lakes and the headwaters of the Mississippi River. We came to hike the Hiking Club trail this time - which brought us to a part of the park I haven't explored before.

We saw 4 people on this trail all day - which is amazing for one of MN's most popular parks. The weather was perfect with puffy white clouds in the sky reflecting off all of the lakes. The HCT is on the opposite side of the park as the headwaters which is probably why it was so quiet. The trail was moderately hard with lots of hills, rock and roots - which makes it hard to lead my mom through. Penny veered off the trail every time she could get close to a lake, drinking out of all but one which when she got down to it she immediately turned around and peed in it, I guess she liked that one best and wanted to claim it as her own.

After the hike we went over to the headwaters - it had been 20+ years since I had visited so it was a must see.